Sublime Porte

alternative High Porte · alternative Ottoman Porte · alternative Porte

1. literallyThe monumental portal at the Ottoman palace where the supreme tribunals were held; became the surname of the first palace in Bursa, transferred to the even grander Topkapı palace after the capital's transfer to Istanbul (the former Byzantine imperial capital Constantinople)
2. figurativelyThe Ottoman sultanic court, hence the imperial government, notably the vizierial divan and the entire empire, or a personage with a similar standing.

   He liked the pleasures of the table, and he liked attendance; he was a sort of Sublime Porte to his valets.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Matrimonial Tête-à-Tête”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 170